Olympic team members making 'some' travel plans

Photograph by: Mark van Manen
, PNG

VANCOUVER - For Canada’s 31-member Olympic swim team, final preparation for London looks like a travelogue where theathletes get to pick their destinations.

Ten were in Vancouver on the weekend for the Mel Zajac International Swim Meet at UBC Aquatic Centre. A dozen, including some of those who swam at the Zajac, are headed for the prestigious Santa Clara Grand Prix in California, next week. Many others are headed to Europe for the three-meet Mare Nostrum series, which includes stops on the Mediterranean at Canet-en Rousillon, Fance, Barcelona and Monte Carlo.

A couple of swimmers, breaststrokers Martha McCabe and Tera van Beilan, won’t, however, be piling up any Air Miles.

They’ve chosen to stay in Vancouver and work with coach Joszef Nagy. Or, given the Nagy’s notoriously ways, maybe he simply made the decision for them.

“After Olympic trials [in Montreal in late March], we basically sat down with the coaches and said ‘Okay, what are you looking for, what are you going to get out of this and that,” Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada’s CEO and head coach, said Sunday.

“Some of the kids just need some racing. It’s learning to race and going against your best competitors.

Among those headed to California are breaststroker Scott Dickens of Vancouver who set Zajac meet records in winning at 100 and 200 metres, and Victoria’s Ryan Cochrane, the 2008 Olympic freestyle bronze medalist, who did not swim at the Zajac.

The group going to Europe includes Brent Hayden of Mission, a medal favorite in the 100 metre freestyle at London, 4x100 freestyle relay swimmer Tommy Gossland of Nanaimo and many of Canada’s top female sprinters from Montreal.

“Some of the best sprinters from other countries are there, so you want to go head-to-head against your competitors and say ‘Let’s go, bring it on,’” said Lafontaine.

Hayden, 28, won a stroke-for-stroke duel with Korean star Taehwan Park in Sunday’s 100-freestyle, touching the wall in 49.45 to 49.51 for his 22-year-old rival.

“I had to really rely on my sprinting speed,” said Hayden, who was just .29 seconds off his 2009 meet record.

Park was actually the star of the Zajac event, winning the 200 freestyle on Friday, beating Hayden’s 2005 meet record by 2.51 seconds in the process, and then obliterating Cochrane’s 2008 meet record in the 400 freestyle on Saturday. The 2008 Olympic and 2011 world championships gold medalist at that distance touched in 3:44.22, nearly six seconds under Cochrane’s mark.

“He was incredible in the 400,” said Hayden. “This is not a fast pool. For him to be able to do that, it’s an incredible accomplishment.”

Hayden, who also won the 50 freestyle on Saturday night, said he was happy with his swims given he hasn’t raced a lot recently. And that’s why he’s looking forward to the Mare Nostrum series.

“Mare Nostrum is three meets back-to-back-to-back and there’s only one or two days separating each meet. That’s like a block of racing you rarely get the opportunity to do.

“You can train all you want, be in the best shape of your life, but if your body doesn’t know how to race, that’s a whole other ball game right there. It’s something you have to continuously touch on. Swimming is very much a feel sport and you always have to put yourself in those situations to remind your body of what it’s about to go through.”

McCabe, a UBC grad, says going up against Australian rival Leisel Jones at the Zajac meet has been beneficial, but now she just wants to fine tune.

“I kind of just prefer to train now, keep working it. I do have a race strategy and have gone off the blocks a few times already. There’s not that long to the Olympics. This [Zajac meet], plus one more [the Canada Cup in Montreal July 6-8] is plenty.”

All the Olympic-bound swimmers will compete at the Canada Cup in Montreal, but won’t take on a heavy load there.

“We want them to get up and have one or two races just to tweak whatever’s left to tweak,” said Lafontaine.

A couple of days after Canada Cup, the team will head to Olbia, Sardinia, for two weeks of final pre-Olympic training.

“There’s a really nice man there, who loves swimming and built a 50-metre pool,” said Lafontaine. “It’s a little village of maybe 1,500 people, away from everything. It’s going to be good.

“We were looking at all sorts of other places — the middle of Europe, Wales and so on — but for me, we were looking for simplicity. We don’t want to over-arouse anything, just chill out.”

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